![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/1987_08-28-NYC-002-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDaddy left on a cold and harsh day.<\/p>\n
It was February…<\/p>\n
Susie left us on a cool and dry day.<\/p>\n
It was November…<\/p>\n
It feels unreal, as if we do not exist, anymore.<\/p>\n
To explain his fact of life called death.<\/p>\n
Daddy was expected to some degree.<\/p>\n
Susie just turned 20-years-old.<\/p>\n
I once saw her … a vision in an old woman on the train.<\/p>\n
It was Susie, if she were in her seventies.<\/p>\n
An age she’d never see.<\/p>\n
She was wrinkled, only a bit.<\/p>\n
The woman on the train.<\/p>\n
Saggy, large eyes…worn face.<\/p>\n
When Susie, only 17 years was diagnosed with cancer…<\/p>\n
Under her left eye …<\/p>\n
Re-diagnosed…<\/p>\n
She had the same thing at age 5.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, Susie always had old eyes…<\/p>\n
… a look that children with cancer get.<\/p>\n
A knowing or maturity…we cannot understand.<\/p>\n
As they are brave souls … old souls,<\/p>\n
before they are old.<\/p>\n
Maybe.<\/p>\n
Daddy was old forever, of course.<\/p>\n
But when the cancer came …<\/p>\n
he got older, still.<\/p>\n
Cancer brings old eyes …<\/p>\n
at least, the terminal kind.<\/p>\n
The face gets grayish.<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s just sadness.<\/p>\n
Or, eventually, letting go of this lifetime.<\/p>\n
Then, just this one day, in August. Ideally, and suddenly.<\/p>\n
There was light! From them who had crossed?<\/p>\n
They lead me to him. Alive, healthy!<\/p>\n
He danced and he sang for me!<\/p>\n
He did not know it was for me …<\/p>\n
or did he?<\/p>\n
He came out, with life in his step!<\/p>\n
He was fast and the air was on fire …<\/p>\n
that passionate fire!<\/p>\n
We connected, almost literally …<\/p>\n
Like the fire in his very soul …<\/p>\n
His forward motion was quick . . .<\/p>\n
I pushed myself off the wall, holding me up!<\/p>\n
And I intercepted him in the middle of the room.<\/p>\n
When he grabbed me<\/p>\n
… for the picture.<\/p>\n
That hard grab was strong<\/p>\n
…yet gentle at the right moment.<\/p>\n
Passionate and held me up,<\/p>\n
as I swooned in him embrace.<\/p>\n
Life became real, again!<\/p>\n
I existed!<\/p>\n
I came alive!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NOTE: In 1987 my father died on February 4th, and my young friend, Susie died in November. As Susie was on her\u00a0 death bed — on August 28th — I met my favorite actor, Tim Curry. This is the actual photograph.<\/p>\n
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Daddy left on a cold and harsh day. It was February… Susie left us on a cool and dry day. It was November… It feels unreal, as if we do not exist, anymore. To explain his fact of life called death. Daddy was expected to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":745,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,2114,441,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-official-marathon-announcement","category-poetry-prompt-responses","category-poetry-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/745"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67988,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67554\/revisions\/67988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}